Ballots to remain uncounted in MI and Stein blocked in Philly. Guest: Election integrity, law expert Paul Lehto says this proves 'only option is to get it right on Election Night'. Also: Trump taps climate denier, fossil-fuel tool for EPA...

The mighty Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press --- responsible for boatloads of tremendous investigative reporting on the ground from Ohio in Election 2004 and one of the participants in the Moss v. Bush lawsuit seeking to set aside the election results in the Buckeye State --- has been mostly quiet of late while working on an upcoming book on all of the above to be published soon.

Today, however, it looks like he's unleashed quite a bit of what he hasn't been able to report on over the last several weeks while hard at work writing the historical record. His new article on the "rise of the right wing juggernaut in Ohio" sheds fresh light on several key points on the insidious Election Night machinations, and even those to this day, of Ohio's Election Viceroy, Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (also the Co-Chair of Ohio's Committee to Re-Elect Bush/Cheney '04).

Amongst the several noteworthy new items Fitrakis catches up on today is some inside skinny on the now-infamous Warren County lockdown on Election Night when an apparently phony "Homeland Security Alert" led Board of Elections officials to issue an unprecedented scheme that shut out all press and witnesses from late-night vote counting in the county's election center.

Free Press has received an insider's account of what happened that night. Here's a sample:

With the media and independent election observers "walled off," as the Cincinnati Enquirer described, the employee claims that "some ballot boxes were taken to the holding area" where they were not monitored by election officials. The Warren County employee referred to the person supervising the unauthorized warehouse as a "Republican Party hack."

The employee is concerned that it would have been easy to "stuff" the ballot boxes or that "signatures could have been forged in the unauthorized holding area."

The anonymous employee told the Free Press that testimony would be provided if subpoenaed. A list of questions that remain unanswered in Warren County was also supplied: Which precinct ballot boxes were taken to the unauthorized holding area? Were officials from the Board of Elections present in the holding area? When were the ballots taken from the holding area to the check-in tent that was erected temporarily to count ballots? If Warren County was under a state of emergency, then why weren't any metal detectors engaged? The FBI has denied that there was any homeland security threat on Election Day.

As well, in a section of the article sub-headed as "Whitewash with a black face", Fitrakis connects a few more interesting dots on the phony GOP front-group busy conning America and hoping to derail true Electoral Reform. Fitrakis ties together the "non-partisan" hoaxsters of the "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) --- the group we originally exposed several weeks ago exclusively here --- with some of the other folks who testified recently at Rep. Bob Ney's hastily convened U.S. House Administrative Hearings on Electoral problems in OH...

The current Bush-orchestrated cover up of Ohio's presidential election fiasco is fashioned much like a CIA covert operation. Initially, Bush partisans and media allies denounced as "conspiracy theorists" anyone who mentioned the irregularities, probable exit poll results and precinct data suggesting election fraud in Warren, Clarmont, and Butler counties.

The emergence of phony non-partisan voting rights organizations mark the second phase of re-writing Ohio's 2004 election history. On the afternoon of Friday, March 18, Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney, Chairman of the U.S. House Administrative Committee, issued a press release announcing a hastily called hearing investigating Ohio presidential election irregularities.

Little noticed at the time, except for Brad Friedman at bradblog, was the appearance of the self-proclaimed voting rights advocate Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, II. Speaking on the last panel, Hearn claimed to represent the "non-partisan watchdog" group, the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). The name sounded similar to actual voting rights organizations like the National Voting Rights Institute. Appearing with Hearne were two Ohio State University Moritz College of Law professors, Ned Foley, a former Republican-appointed state Solicitor General, and Dan Tokaji.

On Monday, March 21, with no opportunity for citizen testimony or any well-known voting rights organizations to participate, the hearing proceeded at the Ohio Statehouse with Hearne playing the role of protector of democracy.

What Hearne failed to tell the Congressional committee was that his organization, the ACVR, was newly formed and that he was national election counsel to Bush-Cheney '04. Also, Hearn's nonprofit center's publicist, Jim Dyke, is a former communications director for the Republican National Committee.

Hearne told the committee that ACVR was a "voting rights legal defense and education center committed to defending the rights of voters and working to increase public confidence in the fairness of the outcome of elections." He then immediately identified "massive registration fraud" as Ohio's key problem.

The former Reagan administration official proceeded to resurrect an old Gipper trick of putting a black face on Ohio's election disaster. Using an isolated incident, Thor thundered, ". . . while at the NAACP operative Georgiana Pitts' home, a 'nicely dressed' man with a briefcase came to the house to pick-up the voter forms. During the transaction Chad was asked to step into the other room while Pitts gave the nicely dressed man the voter registration forms. Ms. Pitts, who paid Chad the crack cocaine for the fraudulent voter registrations has since turned up dead from a drug overdose."

Machiavellian aficionados know that political perception creates reality. Just like the Gipper's infamous quote about a "welfare queen" spitting out babies while on the dole, Hearne's intent was to plant the image of the nation's oldest civil rights group bribing blacks with cocaine to destroy American democracy.

Hearne and Rove know that one racist image trumps 100,000 blacks waiting in the rain in three to seven-hour long lines in Ohio's urban cities. The Washington Post estimated between 15-20,000 people left the lines in Columbus alone, after waiting for hours. The conservative Columbus Dispatch editorial board immediately dismissed Hearn's claim as not the real problem.

Foley, Tokaji and Hearne were all recently named academic advisors to the Commission on Federal Election Reform, now known as the Carter-Baker Commission.

How Hearne, who does not list a single academic appointment on his posted resume, and his last degree was a J.D. in 1986, qualifies as an academic, remains a mystery, as does the source of the Moritz College Election Law Project funding. On the Moritz website, there is Hearne's testimony alongside that of Professors Foley and Tokaji.

Although privately admitting that he has no expertise in exit polling, Tokaji has continued to comment on the irrelevancy of the exit poll discrepancy.

On Friday, April 15, Cliff Arnebeck, one of the Moss v. Bush attorneys who challenged Ohio's presidential results, was disinvited from an Ohio Citizen Action forum at the Moritz College of Law, sponsored by the Election Law Project.

Had Hearne been a real non-partisan voting rights advocate, he would have been familiar with the work of Mike Swinford, who works with Ohio's Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE-OH).

In Knox County, where Kenyon College students finished voting at 4 a.m. only after a court order forced the polling site to remain open, it was not blacks who were engaged in fraudulent voting in the overwhelmingly white county. Swinford found that at the nearby conservative evangelical Mount Vernon Nazarene College, five miles from Kenyon, 186 registered voters used the business address of 800 Martinsburg for their voter registration.

Swinford issued a report noting that: "In Nov 2004, 46 of the 186, voted [having] . . . no second/mailing address. . . . Using the business address instead of a resident address violates fed and state law." The names of all 46 voters documented in the Knox County Board of Elections records were forwarded to the Free Press.

Blackwell, like Hearne, told Rep. Ney's committee that his key objective was to prevent "fraud." Yet, as the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election, the Ohio Secretary of State has displayed little interest in fraud at right-wing Republican Christian campuses.

Fitrakis' excellent, detailed investigative reporting is always worth a full read for loads of good stuff. The kind of stuff that the mainstream corporate media ought to be doing. But isn't. Of course. Give it a read.

(NOTE: We hope to have him as a guest on The BRAD SHOW in the coming weeks to talk about all of the above and much more! We'll let you know, of course, when that appearance is set!)

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at http://www.BradBlog.com/ACVR.

The depth of the corruption is almost incredible.
The height of the hubris, likewise.
To understand something like this fully, you probably need to have lived through it, or something like it.
Here's a quote from somebody who understood.

There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.
--- Benjamin Disraeli, "Vivian Grey"

Here's what continually blows my mind about this: How come no one got in trouble for saying there was a terror alert? Was there an investigation? Who said there was a terror alert? Is the FBI investigating whoever said there was a terror alert? I just can't believe things like this happen, and there's no followup to it. It's absolutely incredible. If the Warren County lockdown/terror alert is not being investigated, then this fucking country STINKS!!! Anyone can do anything they want!!!!!!

I am very interested in the mechanics of electoral fraud. Josh Mitteldorf published an important piece in the Philadelphia Inkwire in which he recounts how it was done in one Arizona precinct. Warren County gives us another dot to connect.

Why don't we create a news network that focuses on reporting the facts. Surely there is a thirst in this country for a program that gives the american people what they need, the truth.

In regards to the new Blackwell information, it's nice to have it all almost put together. What happened to the Constitution? When the government intentionally deceives the people and specifically violates the voting rights of the american people, we are supposed to remove that government. Its sounds so easy in text, but lets face it we are fucked. They have every angle covered, the voting companies, the voting counters, the media, the checks and balances on the voting process, the congress, and of course the fear of fighting it.

Tell me, I'm 23, and don't know how to react to an ovious coup d' etat. Life just doesn't seem the same. America doesn't seem the same & history is watching.
Disgusted Daily,

Hi, Dan #3 - minor correction - only if you are pro-Bush you get to do anything you want. If you are anti-Bush, or merely asking questions, you'd better be quiet or else risk getting into big trouble from Bush and his supporters.

Life sure doesn't seem the same, nor does America, as you say. There are a lot of us out here who are scratching our heads, banging on desks, and screaming into the wind at what has happened, and the insanity that one becomes confronted with when trying to find a rational space from which you can work from as you realize that an election was stolen, in plain sight, in the light of day, and those who did the stealing are casually taunting you and dismissing you as an un-patriotic, tin hat wearing, freak.

What they don't understand however, is that they have underestimated us, and they are in the process of a fatal over-reach in their drive to install a one party, empirical theo-crazy. We don't yet have a ::smoking gun::, but there are many, many like us who are fighting to find it, and believe this......it will be found, and they will fall, eventually.

The American people are beginning to grasp the idea that something is wrong with these traitors, that there is a deep, dark, and pre-meditated theft of their country being carried out by radical extremists bent on the destruction of the Constitution, freedom of speech, and the Bill of Rights.

Bottom line Charles, they have fucked with the wrong bunch of Patriots, and we're coming for them, yeah, we're coming for them.

Stick around. We can use people like you who live life with their eyes open, and their minds open to what the majority of Americans are just now beginning to get a hint of.

So happy I stopped in to catch that post Supersoling! It is up to us and we can and are doing this. Thanks for the inspiration!!

We've go so many righteous, intelligent, informed, true blue people working on our side that I have no doubt the truth will eventually come out! Not to mention the boost I got the other day when the Kerry staffer told me Kerry's working on it! Funny thing happened - someone snagged my post from here and posted it on DU the next day! It's still going and that was last Thursday! LOL!

For anyone who's looking for some sort of "guidance" or help in composing letters there's a great thread at DU complete with various links to pick and choose depending on who you're writing to. The best information I found was on post #8 by tommcintyre.

The pedant in me, .... sorry tiny typo!
Re: the bottom of Brad's opener
"Fitrakis' excellent, detailed [investigativce] reporting is always worth a full read for loads of good stuff. The kind of stuff that the mainstream corporate media ought to be done. But isn't. Of course. Give it a read."

When you type at a rate of two words / minute, as I do, you can actually witness your typo's happening in slooooow moooootion! Hehe!

Hey it's great to know you guys are out there, and I've been following it all. I've read the 102 House Judiciary Report on Ohio, the US Count Votes Exit Poll Discrepancies (smart guys), I spend anywhere from 2-5 hours a day reading, tracking, following, and connecting dots. You are right that we will find a smoking gun, the problem is that I already think we have. Several smoking guns at that. The problem seems to be that the media is owned by the right-wing nut cases, therefore no smoking gun ever gets to the public. Not only do the smoking guns not get to the public, but they are specifically discredited by the major news networks without any facts ever being discussed. I am so damn tired of news networks sourcing their work with "some people say..." Thats how they got to John Kerry's reputation... "some people said".

In regards to what you said about being labeled un-patriotic, so true. I moved from CT to Louisiana, and my opinion does not seem welcome in this state. I am labeled un-patriotic, sore loser, a liberal (as if thats bad), a democratic sympathizer, out to get bush, etc... In reality I'm just following the facts, but -and I hate to generalize- all republicans are ignorant, un-educated, selfish, narrow minded rejects that won't even consider a different perspective. How do you argue against ignorace? It's not even debate.

Anyways I won't take up the whole web log but I am an active participant and will be contributing any connections I can make to all of you. I love the brad blog. I been reading it since he uncovered the gay pimp in the press room. I hope we get can shed light on the truth.

We will get our country back, priority #1 to me is make elections Transparant- the rest will fall into place. Then hold those responsible, responsible. Who knew a cheerleader that graduated from yale with a C average could have overthrown the largest most free democracy in the world.

I also think the clues are there. Just have to keep going. To the poster Jen I'm glad to hear Kerry is still working. How did you get a staffer to tell you that?? Kerry is a great prosecutor and has dealt with the Bush family before so I have faith in him. I know how you all feel about the republicans. When you present a fact to them they either say you're a sore loser or it's biased. :doze:

Mark Rickel, Gov. Bob Taftís press secretary, said Mr. Taft, who was co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign last year in Ohio, was unaware of a federal investigation of Mr. Noe. Mr. Rickel declined further comment.

Photo
Shultz

Zoom
As a regional chairman of the campaign, Mr. Noe had frequent contact with Karl Rove, the architect of the Presidentís re-election. And Ohio, it turned out, was the pivotal state in the election, narrowly pushing President Bush to victory.

Denny White, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said he welcomed the investigation, especially since the Justice Department is behind it.
...

I just went to the link Brad provided for the new Fitrakis piece ("his new article") at top...

call me crazy, but it just makes my head explode when I hear people claim that Kerry is somehow "on" the election issue, not to worry, and then I read this in the Fitrakis article:

"And even John Kerry finally acknowledged the obvious when he returned to the site of his concession speech in Boston and told the League of Women Voters, ďLast year too many people were denied the right to vote; too many who tried to vote were intimidated.Ē

ok...yes...Kerry...looking at the truckload of evidence now...and THIS is what he chooses to say?????

Well thanks, John. Now will someone please push the 'on' button to his BRAIN?

Ok, I was not there...maybe he said more, maybe I'm over-reacting....

And if it turns out I am wrong about Kerry and we hear about him ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING FREAKING RELEVANT in regard to vote fraud...well.... somebody choose a penance and I'll do it. Enthusifreakinastically.

All you people yelling for Kerry to take a look? He's in on it and was in Iraq on January 6, 2005 instead of standing up with Senator Barbara Boxer and 30 some in the House not to accept the electoral votes. The only thing Kerry deserves is to be awarded a gold metal from George W, Dick Cheney and their U boats of Truth organization for taking the biggest dive in US history. Skull and Bones bebe! A bloodless Revolution can and will take place when this thing finally goes to Federal court in front of someone's who's not a Right Wing George W Bush appointed honest real American judge looks at the mountain of evidence. Bless you all.

Here's what I suspect happened in Ohio. Gov. Taft called Blackwell just before Nov. 2 and asked, "Is it true that we Republicans have someone trying to rig the 2004 election?" Blackwell answered, "Noe."

I'm quoting George Carlin, we in America get to choose whether to smoke or not. Good news is busting out everywhere in spite of that. I believe in the American people. People like Brad and you guys. Warren Buffet came out and said Bush's S.S. plan is lame.Bush's poll numbers are down and continue to plummet. Great time for election fraud facts to continue to surface. Check out TBRnews.org...Voice for the White House. I don't know if I belive this writer or not. But anyway, he is funny.

"The persistent inability to change oneís views when confronted with solid proofs that those views are in error is one of the key, defining characteristics of mental illness and/or personality disorder"

Read it in some other Blog some time ago and saved it...seems to say it all when presenting facts gets you nowhere, ..its my saving grace when I become so infuriated I just want to bitch-slap them..you just don't hit the mentally disabled..they can't help it...! :angry:

BRAD you are awesome...I share the "PAIN" in following it ALL. Support and emailed Fritkais, Arnebeck, Blackbox Bev, Michael Moore; and others following all of this from the start. Fritkais is Awesome...as are his associates; even got a few replies...
but I cant figure OUT for the Life of Me...Why we havent started the class action suit yet. THAT WOULD CERTAINLY GET THE MSM ATTENTION: ALL THATS NEEDED IS MASS NEWSPAPER ADS IN ALL CITIES WITH A LETTER PETITION STYLE TO BE COPIED SIGNED AND SENT TO Lawyers/paralegals offices in every city. CERTAINLY WE CAN GET BEHIND THIS...AND DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD GO UNNOTICED??? The people I have mentioned it to either dont hear me or just go off on ALL the Blogging Rhetoric. I know Blackwell had supoenaed
Kerry and Edwards...we are only looking to see whether the Judge was going to uphold the supoenae. It would be GREAT...but WE THE PEOPLE Must get the Lawyers to call the WHOLE CLASS FOR SUIT:o). Kerry IS a great investigation prosecuter; he investigated Iran Contra and Oliver North was implicated big time and rewarded with his own War Stories on FOx:o(.
THAT information was broadcast repeatedly on Headliners and Legends (Kerry) next to H&L (Bush) during the campaign. I am an old successful community activist...and am frustrated as hell with the time that has elapsed without breaking water...but I salve myself with the fact that Watergate took about 2 years before Nixon got the AXE...and by thee way Headliners also pointed out how Nixon tried to Axe Kerry in his war protests
and threat to the war machine. Don't know anymore whether Kerry is merely watching out for his life; avoiding being the second JFK to go by the bye under the Bush CIA as has been proported.
Maybe Votergate will surface before two years.
We are only 100 days into the second "W" regime; it just seems an eternity. ALL support to Fritikais
and associates and us who will join the CLASS if one is called.
The Verbose One

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is ridiculous. As somebody who was very involved with the Kerry campaign in Warren County (that's right, we actually had an operation set up in Mason!) it's disheartening to read this nonsense. While I don't know what the "threat" was, on the night of the election both campaigns were aware of what was happening and were fine with it. Why? Because the Board of Elections is run by Dems AND Repubs! Observers and workers from both parties are present for the receiving and counting of ballots. It's incredibly bipartisan, and virtually impossible to flub if but by human or machine error.

It wasn't until a day or two later when the papers started quoting Kerry staffers (though none seemed to interview the Bush people), who suddenly acted surprised. Sure I was pissed, but we knew what was happening, and knowing how it all works, it wasn't a big deal. The media is upset because it's the media.

If there was a conspiracy then that would mean not only were GOPers in on it but Dems too. this "infamous Warren County" BS is nonsense.

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is ridiculous. As somebody who was very involved with the Kerry campaign in Warren County (that's right, we actually had an operation set up in Mason!) it's disheartening to read this nonsense. While I don't know what the "threat" was, on the night of the election both campaigns were aware of what was happening and were fine with it. Why? Because the Board of Elections is run by Dems AND Repubs! Observers and workers from both parties are present for the receiving and counting of ballots. It's incredibly bipartisan, and virtually impossible to flub if but by human or machine error.

It wasn't until a day or two later when the papers started quoting Kerry staffers (though none seemed to interview the Bush people), who suddenly acted surprised. Sure I was pissed, but we knew what was happening, and knowing how it all works, it wasn't a big deal. The media is upset because it's the media.

If there was a conspiracy then that would mean not only were GOPers in on it but Dems too. this "infamous Warren County" BS is nonsense.